The Bullis uniform seemed pretty simple, at least until restrictions became a nuisance. This is my third year here at Bullis, and not a day goes by where I don’t witness someone being told that they are out of uniform. Yes, students should take pride in wearing the uniform properly, but why can’t the student, who is the one wearing the uniform in the first place, have any say about the particulars of the code?

After interviewing CeMaia Wise (’13), I learned that some of her complaints are equivalent to other students’ in Upper School, namely that some aspects of the dress code are nuisances. Wise explains her issues with the dress code disagreeing with the fact that we must wear “solid” black or brown shoes, meaning no other part of the shoe can be of any other color. There is nothing wrong with a white or black sole on the bottom of a shoe, even it is black or brown.

To go along with the shoe issue, Wise also mentioned how students are not allowed to wear the sports jacket that athletes purchase for the sport they play. This was also another major complaint from various students, especially student-athletes. Students should be able to wear jackets of good quality that are comprised of Bullis school colors in them, especially considering the money spent to buy them. Wearing a team jacket not only shows pride in the sport students play here at Bullis, but also in the balance between academics and athletics that Bullis as an institution strives to strike.

The tedious aspects of the dress code are the ones that result in the most concerns for administration. Aspects such as why our corduroys cannot have rivets, or a sweatshirt or sweater of school colors cannot be worn even though it goes with the uniform, or how grey polos are not included in the uniform but grey sweaters and grey pants are allowed.

Specifically, some students plead that “you can’t wear socks with Toms” but it is indeed illegal to not wear socks with your shoes here at Bullis, and the fact that those shoes may be Toms is of no concern to the instructional staff. On many of occasions – mainly Upper School assemblies – there have been discussions about the do’s and dont's about the school uniform. Hopefully in the future, more student perspectives on the dress code will be considered and negotiated.

For now, we must all continue wearing our Toms with socks, our grey pants and grey plaid skirts but no grey polos, and our black or brown colored shoes with the same colored sole.